JUMPDATE! (Update on Simplot’s JUMP project)
As you all know I have been visiting Austin, Texas for the last week so blogging has been sporadic. I have a series of posts planned about that dynamic city, so stay tuned. Before I hit the road, however, I was invited by the IBR’s real estate reporter Dani Grigg to a leads breakfast which featured Simplot Corporation spokesman David Cuoio talking about the JUMP, or “Jack’s Urban Meeting Place” project. I have to admit I don’t share the same level of optimism as the rest of Boise, which has consistently raved about how awesome this is for the city.
I grant you, on its face, a $100 million investment in an area that has been a blight on the entrance to our fine city looks extremely attractive. But after hearing Cuoio - who had almost NO details - speak, I am more afraid than ever. Here’s why.
The one thing that Cuoio was clear on is that JUMP is a non-profit venture. You got that? S-16/Simplot Foundation has no plan to make money from this investment - at least as outlined by Cuoio. I am not a commercial real estate analyst, but I can tell you that the annual operating expenses on a property that size is going to run in the six or seven figures. Are the Simplots prepared to simply write a check every year to cover operating costs? One has to ask because of the propensity of Simplot to “donate” depreciated assets to governmental entities.
Take for example the “gift” of the old Simplot home to the state of Idaho for use as a Governor’s mansion. The home isn’t being used for that purpose, and requires a heady amount of renovation before it is usable as such. Another fine example is Idaho Ice World which the Simplots could not seem to earn any money on, so it was “donated” to the City of Boise. Credit Parks and Recreation Department Head Jim Hall with turning that into a profitable operation for the city. A less capable manager might not have been able to do that which would have left Boise taxpayers with a big white elephant. Finally, several years ago Simplot shuttered an old potato factory in Heyburn and again “donated” it to the county for use as an industrial park. Not that 50 year old buildings and equipment are exactly prime for immediate use.
So this concerns me when the Simplot Corporation now wants to negotiate with the city to perhaps include the library in the project. What happens in five years when the Foundation/Family is sick of writing checks to keep this operation afloat? The Libary! is encircled by a property left in limbo? JUMP becomes a new city park?
To be fair, the Simplot Corporation tentatively plans to move the Food Group and the corporate headquarters to the site which will bring in revenue, but Cuoio was also clear about another thing: This isn’t really the JUMP project so much as it is the JOTC - Jack’s Old Tractor Collection - project.
In a May 23, 2009 Statesman article, Cuoio outlined all kinds of neat things that are planned for JUMP - an amphitheater, studio spaces for artists, and a bunch of indoor and outdoor venues for gatherings. But he again stressed the nature of this facility as a non-profit and said there would be no food service on site for weddings and such, and made no mention of any plans for tour guides, booking agents for the amphitheater, curators, property managers, etc. So what is going on here? Tough to say but what we do know is that Jack has a massive collection of old tractors in storage in Montana, and many of them will be displayed on floors that should house prime office space, according to Cuoio.
Sound a bit funky? I think so.
Finally, vendors interested in providing services to the JUMP/JOTC project can send inquiries to:
JUMP
999 Main St. 10th Floor #1000
Boise, ID 83702
Development, Simplot | admin July 20, 2009
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By fortboise, July 21, 2009 @ 8:48 am
A big collection of tractors would actually be more quintessential for Nampa or Caldwell, but we needn’t quibble.
It should be noted that “the” entrance to our city is Capitol Boulevard. That’s been blighted in its own way, brown blobs of commerce (and traffic jams) overshadowing the once grand axis of railroad and state government… but then art followed life in that regard.